Graphical user interface screens that include icons have been widely used with modern computer systems to represent application programs and documents on computer displays. The well-known MAC OS operating system from Apple Computer Corporation and the WINDOWS operating system from Microsoft Corporation are two examples of widely used operating systems that utilize graphical user interfaces.
More recently, mobile terminals such as cellular telephones and wireless-enabled PDAs have incorporated graphics-oriented technology that allows a user to select application programs, web sites, and documents. Following increases in computing performance and memory capacity, mobile terminals now host an increasing number of application programs and capabilities. The Nokia 9210 COMMUNICATOR, for example, supports numerous functions such as telephone, fax, e-mail, calendar, and contacts features.
In order to maintain a convenient handheld form factor, the graphics displays for mobile terminals are necessarily small, thus limiting the amount of information that can be comfortably viewed at one time. Consequently, one problem confronting designers of such devices is determining how to maximize the number of icons and other graphical symbols on the display of such devices without making the symbols too small to see.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,197, entitled “Icon Driven Phone Menu System,” describes a cellular telephone including a display mode selector that allows a user to select one of two display modes. In a first display mode, icons representing applications are arranged in rows and columns, thus allowing a user to navigate in two dimensions using cursor buttons. In a second display mode, the icons are displayed on one side of the cellular telephone display with a text field adjacent to each icon that identifies the icon.
Although the display modes in the aforementioned patent allow a user to navigate through numerous icons on the display, each icon takes up roughly the same amount of space on the display, regardless of its importance to the particular user. For example, if one user predominantly uses application programs A and B, whereas a second user predominantly uses application programs C and D, each user must navigate through the same set of icons in order to locate his or her desired application programs.
As location-based information and location-based services become a reality, mobile terminal users will receive even more messages and associated icons. The messages may include location-specific messages (e.g., advertisements for restaurants and movie theaters). With prior art devices, it will become increasingly burdensome for users to obtain information about the messages. Users will have to spend more time sorting through icons to find icons corresponding to the application programs and messages they desire to execute or view.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for systems and methods that allow users to display icons on a small screen in a manner that allows users to quickly obtain desired information.